Aikido Club at UCR

hideshi (live in student) at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo before being dispatched abroad to help develop Aikido internationally. Chiba Sensei was the founder of Birankai International Aikido group. Kevin Bash traces his aikido lineage to O-sensei as a student of Pablo Vasquez, a student of Chiba Sensei. He is a Shidoin, promoted to 5th Dan by Chiba Sensei and is the Chief instructor of Riverside Aikikai. Kevin Bash has taught Aikido at UCR since 1997. Juan Pablo Simonovis was promoted to 3rd Dan by Kevin Bash and has been practicing aikido in 1998 in Venezuela since the age of 14 and has been training for over 25 years. He was with Homero Navas Sensei until his relocation to California, USA and has been with Birankai since 2012. Juan was occasionally invited to teach classes at Riverside Aikikai until his relocation to New York in 2017. He returned to Riverside Aikikai as a permanent instructor as of 2021. Other instructors at Aikido at UCR are Steve Rockett who has trained for over 40 years in Aikido and has been an instructor at UC Riverside since 2004, and Yulie Gurrola who has trained for over 10 years and has been an instructor since 2022.